'Sent out, yes; out to go wherever you please, Leonard. The right is
come round. The truth is out. You are a free man! Do you know what
that is? It is a pardon. Your pardon. All that can be done to right
you, my boy--but it is as good as a reversal of the sentence.'

The Doctor had spoken this with pauses; going on, as Leonard, instead
of answering, stood like one in a dream, and at last said with
difficulty, 'Who did it then?'

'It was as you always believed.'

'Has he told?' said Leonard, drawing his brows together with the effort
to understand.

'No, Leonard. The vengeance he had brought on himself did not give
space for repentance; but the pocket-book, with your receipt, was upon
him, and your innocence is established.'

'And let me congratulate you,' added the governor, shaking hands with
him; 'and add, that all I have known of you has been as complete an
exculpation as any discovery can be.'

Leonard's hand was passive, his cheek had become white, his forehead
still knit. 'Axworthy!' he said, still as in a trance.

'Yes. Hurt in a brawl at Paris. He was brought to the Hotel Dieu; and
my son Tom was called to see him.'

'Sam Axworthy! repeated Leonard, putting his hand over his eyes, as if
one sensation overpowered everything else; and thus he stood for some
seconds, to the perplexity of both.

They showed him the papers: he gazed, but without comprehension; and
then putting the bag, provided by Tom, into his hand, they sent him,
moving in a sort of mechanical obedience, into the room of one of the
officials to change his dress.

Dr. May poured out to the governor and chaplain, who by this time had
joined them, the history of Leonard's generous behaviour at the time of
the trial, and listened in return to their account of the growing
impression he had created--a belief, almost reluctant, that instead of
being their prime specimen, he could only be in their hands by mistake.
He was too sincere not to have confessed had he been really guilty; and
in the long run, such behaviour as his would have been impossible in
one unrepentant. He had been the more believed from the absence of
complaint, demonstration, or assertion; and the constant endeavour to
avoid notice, coupled with the quiet thorough execution of whatever was
set before him with all his might.

This was a theme to occupy the Doctor for a long time; but at last he
grew eager for Leonard's return, and went to hasten him. He starte